The present invention relates generally to communication protocol conversion. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method of completing a conversion from Internet protocol version 4 to Internet protocol version 6 utilizing modular data converters capable of converting formatted data on a first Ethernet data stream to data in a different format on a second Ethernet data stream.
Most of the Internet utilizes Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) which has been employed for nearly twenty years. Each new device added to the Internet is assigned a unique address. Due to the exploding use of the Internet there is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses. As is apparent, global Internet routing based upon the 32-bit addresses of IPv4 is becoming increasingly strained. In addition to the foregoing, IPv4 addresses lack the flexibility to construct efficient hierarchies. Classless Internet-domain routing has extended the lifetime of IPv4 routing, however, the difficulty associated with managing the routing continues to increase and it is foreseeable that the Internet will eventually exhaust its supply of useable network numbers.
In an attempt to address the inherent problems with IPv4, Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) has been designed as an evolutionary step from IPv4. Importantly, IPv4 and IPv6 are not completely interoperable. IPv6 addresses the perceived deficiencies in IPv4, such as the limited number of available IP addresses, and additionally adds many improvements in areas such as routing and network auto configuration. IPv6 is designed to run well on high performance networks while simultaneously efficiently running on low bandwidth networks (i.e., wireless) IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4 with the two Internet protocols coexisting for a number of years during a transition. Initially devices supporting IPv6 will be rare amongst IPv4 devices. IPv6 devices will be required to be able to communicate with IPv4 hosts. As the transition progresses, IPv6 devices will dominate over IPv4 thereby isolating the legacy IPv4 devices. IPv6 hosts will communicate with IPv4 hosts through many known methods such as IPv4/IPv6 stacks, tunneling IPv6 over IPv4, Network Address Translation-Protocol Translation (NAT-PT) and Stateless IP/ICMP Translation. However, once IPv6 dominates the Internet there will be a large number of legacy devices and hosts currently on the Internet utilizing IPv4. Because IPv4 supports only a limited number of devices, and the Internet is rapidly reaching its limit, such IPv4 legacy devices will eventually need to be replaced or modified at great expense to support IPv6.
Known attempts to address the conversion issue include routers developed by such companies such as Cisco that will allow IPv4 to IPv6 conversion, but such technology is employed on a network-wide basis. Other systems have been described in issued patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,038,233 and 6,118,784, the substance of which is incorporated herein by reference. Although prior systems address IPv4 to IPv6 conversions, it would be desirable to have a device that includes IPv4 to IPv6 conversion on a one-to-one basis as opposed to many-to-many. Current practices for conversion additionally include a technique for hosts and routers to dynamically tunnel IPv6 packets over IPv4 routing infrastructure. The tunneling technique, however, requires a substantial configuration which is time consuming and expensive. It would be desirable to have a device that would allow to the conversion from IPv4 to IPv6 with minimal configuration to create a homogenous network infrastructure as IPv4 fades away.